Jimmy Rim, chief executive of South Korean venture capital firm K Cube Ventures, found success through his early investment in Anipang, a popular online mobile game.

Mr. Rim’s K Cube has also made investments in more than 12 startups in South Korea including gaming company Neptune and social networking service Vingle. Prior to K Cube, he worked at Softbank Ventures. He shares his experience and what he looks for in startups at The Wall Street Journal cafe in Seoul Thursday.

Edited excerpts:

WSJ: What was the reason for choosing to invest in Sundaytoz, the company behind Anipang?

Mr. Rim: I invested in Sundaytoz in 2010. When I first made an investment, there were five employees, but I am glad to see their growth. I think CEO Kevin Lee and the founding members had brilliant insights. When the social game first came out, there were various definitions and analysis of social games, but Mr. Lee had a very different idea and thought the main point of social games was not the graphics but social. And that was about sending and receiving ‘hearts’. Like this, he had his own idea and philosophy, and I think that fortunately brought good results.

WSJ: What is the most typical story when founders make a pitch for venture capital money?

Mr. Rim: The most typical presentations are the ones I hate the most. We have a lot of presenters armed with marketing terms. But what matters is not the terms but ideas and philosophies behind the service. I think services that cannot answer basic questions such as to whom and why is this service important are useless. And there are many people like that than you would expect.

WSJ: When we interviewed you for ways to make appealing presentations to venture capital firms, you mentioned an educational game service but it didn’t succeed. Does this happen often?

Mr. Rim: Yes. There are good companies with well-written business plans and explanations. Still, 80% to 90% of companies end up going out of business. But we can make a profit if two to three out of 10 succeed. It’s the nature of venture firms.

This tells us that a person should do what he is interested in, not what’s hot in the market at the moment. There is a typical pattern of diminishing venture companies. There is 90% of chance of running out of business.

But there are cases of success by overcoming difficulty with strong belief about the company’s service. No matter how well they write their business plan, it’s difficult to predict success of venture companies because of countless variables.

WSJ: Then how can a person prepare for that? Can you give some tips?

Mr. Rim: This may be the obvious tip but we get loads of business proposals and we cannot meet up with everyone. It’s better to send proposals through someone we already know or a well-connected person in the industry.

WSJ: But isn’t it difficult for startup founders to make such connections?

Mr. Rim: It is difficult but it’s getting easier these days with events like these. And most startup business CEOs are open-minded and they network with each other. It’s important to put efforts in making yourself known. The market is not just about research papers that says a future trend will be like this or that.

My major interest is what problems will these people solve. Purpose of a firm is to provide products or services aimed at solving certain problems. A successful founder notices uncomfortable aspects of something and comes up with a solution that many people can agree with. To be honest, there are some people who are good at certain things while others cannot do the same. Despite the existence of strong competitors, they should persuade us that they are more competent in the field.

I believe a saying that says ‘A-level workers attract A-level people’. There are certain people that makes you want to work with.

WSJ: What is an A-level person? Some say that the amount of investment is determined by educational background of a person. Is it true that ‘A-level worker’ means a person with excellent educational background?

Mr. Rim: Venture capitalists have to find successful companies that earn money. Each business has different core competencies. For example, social shopping companies like TicketMonster and Coupang need a good sales person rather than an excellent engineer. A good sales person doesn’t mean a person with high educational background. And we look for a company that can succeed.